IKEA Before and After

erinb007April 2, 2014

Finally complete and was so worried about the quality of my IKEA cabinets...LOVE THEM! So glad I saved the money and spent on other things, and am fairly certain I would have really regretted going with a different brand cabinets. The functionality of IKEA can't be beat and I am thrilled with them..they seem like they will last for a very long time.!

I bought this house for my daughter and I to live in and it was a dump, but I knew had great potential. Kitchen (whole house actually) hadn't been TOUCHED since 1957 (and probably not cleaned since then too). :(

Budget-

IKEA cabs including two big kitchen pantry cabs and one base cab used as my bathroom (seen briefly in one pic)-$7,000
Fantastic White granite-$4400
Appliances and hood $3500 (bought scratch and dent)
lighting, faucets, paint, etc., etc. was additional
If have any questions let me know. I gained so much great advice from this forum, happy to return the favor.

awww, thanks so much everyone! sjhockeyfan-all my lighting came from overstock. the lights are turned off in the pics but they provide a lot of light. they use 40 watt G9 base bulb . I am thiking of getting a smaller wattage bulb as they are almost too bright for me.

Very cool! What a transformation! I love the little retro touches. It seems to me like the left upper corner by your window would have been hard to plan and I think you handled it very well (I'm always agonizing over corners).

I agree with sjhockeyfan that you are in the running for the "best transformation 2014" award!

The granite is stunning - I love the pattern and colours. I like that you chose not to do a tile backsplash - it lets the granite be the star.

A tiny suggestion - see how the white cabinet shows along the corner of your island? You can easily fix that by applying edge-banding in that area, or even just brushing on some dark grey paint. Sometimes those little finishing touches make IKEA kitchens look more custom.

Super cute tub too - could you share the make/model?

My IKEA kitchen is in mid-installation (and will be for a while :/ ). I'm loving the quality of the hardware and drawers - a dream compared to what I'm used to.

i had a kitchen designer becuase i reconfigured whole house/added master bath, knocked out wall in between kitchen and LR..he planned the microwave shelf. He is the whole reason the IKEA cabs turned out so great. Works long distance (he is in chicago, I am in OH) and did all the IKEA ordering for me..that was a huge relief. If anyone is interested in using him, PM me.

That is fabulous! I love ikea cabinets. :). And your kitchen is really beautiful. We did our last kitchen with ikea and one of the things that struck me is that I never felt like I had compromised at all--they were my first choice.

Oh Wow! That is just a stunning design and transformation. What vision you had to be able to see that kitchen as a possibility in the space with which you started, just amazing. Don't you just love Ikea cabinets!! The drawers, hardware, innards, flexibility, and ease of changes, to say nothing of the incredible value. They look fabulous, as does the whole room. Congratulations! Please let us know if you hear from Ikea about using your kitchen in their ads, I won't be the least surprised.

There is a blog I follow that recentely started featuring Ikea kitchens. She is going to feature mine soon - I can't wait!!! Anyways here is the link to one of the kitchens and she asks that if anyone would like to be featured on her blog to email her if you are interested.

"Do you have an Ikea kitchen (it need not be 100% Ikea) that you would be willing to share on House*Tweaking? If so, please contact me at housetweaking@gmail.com for consideration. Thank you in advance!"

Holy cow - it really is hard to believe that is the same space. It is an AWE worthy transformation!!! I can't stop flipping between the before and after photos. I have no doubt you will enjoy cooking in the new kitchen. I love the aqua accents. Where did you get the chairs?

Chairs were an awesome find on Craigslist. Very expensive chairs 10 years ago that needed some TLC. Love them. Recovered them and spent a ton of time buffing the corrosion out of the alumnium.

Here is another angle. the "sitting" room was eliminated and we used half that space to bump out kitchen, other half was used to bump out master bed and build my master bath. It's a small mid century ranch. 1500 sq ft.

thanks rae! my kitchen desgner is actually a relative who has an architecture background. I knew I needed help when I started planning on moving walls. Having an expert inovlved to help me utilize every square inch of space was critical to the success of this project. For a 1500 sq ft house, we really have a great floorplan now!

someone asked me about customer service with overstock, as I bought all my bathroom tile and lighting fixtures there. I will say it's mixed. I have had issues with a couple of lights. It's hard to communicate with the customer service reps (i usually use online chat) because they are clearly from another country. There is a lot of misunderstandings. I had to fight them on a couple of things and originally go them to refund defective merchandise but it wasn't easy. I have bought from them for years and think the customer service used to be better.

erinb007,
Love how your kitchen turned out. You have the exact cabinets that I am considering....I was not sure about the Adel because they are the thermofoil(?) front, but yours look wonderful! The closest Ikea is about 3 hrs away so I have not been able to see them in person...

For your pantry, did you use 2 15" cabinets together? And are they the 80" or 88" inch high (I love the idea of using crown at the top like you did) so I am assuming you used the 88" high pantries?

I love your Ikea kitchen so much! How tall are your cabinets? How did you do the crown molding and what paint color/manufacturer did you use? I love your Fantastic White Granite counters! I love the placement of your microwave! The transformation is amazing!

Thanks Lynn and Judith! I still love my kitchen and couldn't be happier with the IKEA cabs. The pantry is 24x64 on the bottom and 24x24 on top. My pantry is insane. I still pinch myself. Everything rolls out so smoothly. Perfection. In looking at the renderings, it looks like the tops are 39" high, does that make sense/answer your question? I too love the Fantastic White! I used BM Paper Mache for the crown..it' s a perfect match. I just told my GC that I wanted a simple crown, nothing too elaborate and that is what he came up with. Hope this helps.

Erin, well here I am back with a question again..I just went to the Ikea website, I can't find a pantry that is sized "24x64" as you mentioned (only 80 tall or 88 tall). Did your designer tweek a taller pantry (cut it down to 64")?